Peter schmid



an STTES PATENT ()FFIGE.

PETER SCHMID, OF BASED, SWITZERLAND.

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOAM 0R FROTH BATES FQR TREATING TEXTILE FIBERS AND TEXTILE FABRICS.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, PETER ScHMn), a citizen of the Swiss Republic, and resident of Basel, Switzerland, have invented anew and useful Process for the Production of Foam or Froth Baths for Treating Textile Fibers and Textile Fabrics, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact speci fication.

The invention relates to a process for the production of foam or froth baths for treating textile fibers and textile fabrics and for the obtainment of a food for animals or of a dung manure. According to the new process alkalis and human or animal excrements, which may contain urine, are added,

as foam or froth producers, to the liquid tobe transformed by boiling into foam or froth.

The process is employed for treating textile fibers of vegetal, animal or chemical origin, raw or in every state ofmanufacture, for instance for ungumming, phosphating, silicating, soaping, cleaning, fulling, dyeing, mordanting, fixing mordants and dyes, etc.

It is known that silk,silk wastes and fabriiscs thereof can be treated as threads, tissues, e c.

'(a) With soap lather (U. S. Letters Patent- No. 848-605) in order to obtain an ungumming of the silk with a great soap sav- (1)) With a foam or-froth produced from a watery liquid containing silk chrysalids or S1ll wastes containing silk chrysalids or serlcm and, if desired, sodium carbonate or soap, in order to obtain an ungumming, a phosphating or a silicating of the silk (U. S. Letters Patent No.1199433, No. 1207800 and U. S. Letters Patent application Ser. No.

173066 dated June 5, 1917 It is further known, that the soaping of printed cotton fabrics, of wool and of wool fabrics and of jute made woolly and of articles made of this latter material as well as the fulling of wool can be efiected with soap lather.

According to the present invention, it becomes possible (1) To avoid completely or nearly completely the employment of soap not onl for the ungumming of silk, silk wastes an fabrics thereof or for their phosphating and silicating, but also forv all other treatments I Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept. 23, 1919- Application filed November 27, 1917. Serial No. 204,285.

for which heretofore soap, or soap and other substances, or sodium carbonate alone, or alkalis in various preparations and in various mixtures with other substances, or acids, or mordanting baths of various compositions in form of liquid or of foam or froth have been employed for fibers of vegetal, animal or chemical origin in all forms of manufacture (threads,'tissues, etc.) and in all states of treatment (raw, dyed, printed, weighted -or not) and (2) To avoid also completely or nearly completely the addition of silk chrysalids or of silk wastes containing silk chrysalids, sericin and soap, if the said fibers are treatid in foam or froth baths produced as folows:

Into a vessel of iron or wood provided near its bottom with a heating coil or into an iron vessel placed on a furnace or other heating device is introduced a layer-of water'of 15 to 30 centimeters height, containing 1 to 8 or more grams of sodium carbonate per liter and 5 to 10 grams of dried human or animal excrements, which may contain urine, per 1 to 3 liters of pure or raw water and: by boiling the liquid is transformed into foam or froth.

As in the new process substances are employed which contain bacteria which, for instance when the process is employed for cleaning or washing linen, must not come into contact. with the linen, it will be useful to show in what an excellent, simple and sure manner this condition is attained with the idea upon which the new process is based. z y

The excrements are introduced in the water near the bottom of the vessel and of the vessel. The bubbles formed of fatty matters, salts, acids, alkalis, etc., and a hot mixture of steam and air, constitute an excellent substitute for the soap, owing to their continuous and very quick revival at the same place of the linen upon which every bubble has to act in the same manner, that is to say, has to dissolve the dirt or render it soluble. It is obvious that by the continuous boiling of the aqueous liquid the sodium carbonate will. saponify the fatty matters of he excrements. The produced foam or froth may be neutral, acid or alkalin. After the excrements have been employed as foam or froth producers, they are a good dung or manure and innoxious for the health of men and animals and have lost entirely their nauseous smell. Therefore they can also be employed as a foodstufl' for animals.

The textile material to be treated is held in any convenient manner in the vessel above the aqueous liquid containing the excrements and the said liquid is heated by the steam coil or other heating device and transformed quickly into foam or froth which will rise through and over the textile material and produce the ungumming, soaping or cleaning of this latter in a time varying from 8 to 120 minutes, according to the kind of textile material treated. For the fabrics, which shall be white or show a particular touch or be colored, there can be added, before or during the foaming, the necessary quantity of substances capable of producing the touch or of oily or dressing substances or of dyestuffs or of any other soluble substance, which, if desired, can be a destroying agent for the bacteria.

A very uniform treatment of the textile material occurs, since the aqueous liquid is throughout boiled with the introduced sub stance at the bottom of the vessehbefore it rises as foam or froth which is continuously revived.

Near the bottom of the vessel the bacteria are destroyed in the boiling liquid and above this latter, that is to say, in the foam or froth they are subjected to two actions, namely on the one hand to the action of the liquid boiling parts of every individual bubble and on the other hand to the very intensive action of the steam flowing out of each bubble in the moment of its bursting. The liquid of the vessel circulates quickly; it rises as foam, is condensed at the walls and in the upper part of the vessel, sinks again and begins a further circulation. The extraordinarily quick renewal of the individual foam or froth bubbles produces an extraordinarily intense destroying of the bacteria.

The greater part of the dirt on the linen is merely made soluble by the foam or froth and not drawn in the liquid at the bottom of the vessel, the said dirt being only eliminated at the subsequent washing of the linen treated with foam or froth with water, while the linen is subjected to a squeezing action. The linen itself comes only into contact with the foam, but never into contact with the liquid. Thus the solid excrements never come into contact with the linen.

A little quantity of soap can be added to the water containing the excrements, as for instance 0.5 gram of soap per liter water.

For ungumming silk it is advantageous to add a little soap.

For the soaping of printed cotton fabrics (calicoes) the foam or froth must be as neutral as possible.

Before its treatment with foam or froth, the linen to be cleaned or washed can be immersed for a certain time in cold or warm water containing, if desired, sodium carbonate.

The described treatment with foam or froth can also be employed for dyeing all the specified fibers in a foam or froth bath, the dyestuif being introduced, in the usual manner, into the foam or froth or into the liquid employed for the formation of the foam or froth.

According to the textile materials treated, the vessel of the apparatus can be provided in its upper part with removable and rotatable holders on which the silk hanks or other fabrics to be treated with foam or froth can be suspended or with rollers over which the calicoes or other tissues can be conducted through the foam or froth or with removable hurdles or trays or endless, continuously moved nets, on which linen or the like can be treated with the foam or froth.

What I claim is:

1. The herein described process for the production of foam or froth baths for treating textile fibers and textile fabrics consisting in adding alkalis and excrements of human or animal origin to the liquid to be transformed into foam or froth and subjecting the resulting mixture to a boiling.

2. he herein described process for the production of foam or froth baths for treating textile fibers and textile fabrics consisting in adding alkalis and excrements of human or animal origin, containing urine, to the liquid to be transformed into foam or froth and subjecting the resulting mixture to a'boiling.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 30th day of October, 1917,1'11 the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

PETER SCHMTD Witnesses:

H. H. DICK, AMAND RILLEY. 

